ANAHEIM, CA – AUGUST 02: Recent Hall of Fame member Bert Blyleven reacts on the mound after he throws out the ceremonial first pitch in honor of his induction before the game between the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Minnesota Twins at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on August 2, 2011 in Anaheim, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)

Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven, the longtime Minnesota Twins TV analyst, was to leave Tuesday, Feb. 19, for Taiwan as pitching coach for the Dutch team that will compete in the World Baseball Classic next month.

“This isn’t really a job — it’s something I want to give back to where I was born,” said Blyleven, 61, who was born in Zeist, Netherlands. “I’m not doing it for the financial part whatsoever. To me, it’s an honor to represent the country that I was born in. I enjoy the heck out of it. It’s fun.”

Blyleven, the only Dutch-born member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., has been in Phoenix working with Dutch pitchers who range from ages 17 to 38.

Has he spotted any young Bert Blylevens?

“There are a couple kids who have good arms,” Blyleven said from Phoenix. “Mainly right now, they’re just doing fastballs and change-ups, not really throwing breaking balls.

“For the (exhibition) games, I told them just fastballs and change-ups, and if they get either 0-2 or 1-2 (in the count), if they want to mix in a breaking ball, OK. But other than that, I just want them to attack the strike zone.”

The World Baseball Classic has pitch count limits.

“So I’ve got to make sure these guys make something happen early in an at-bat rather than pulling 20 to 25 pitches in one inning,” Blyleven said. “You have to abide by the pitch count. If I have a reliever throw over 30 pitches, he needs to rest 24 hours.

“So in Game 1, I’ve got to make sure I keep my relievers under 30 pitches so I can use them the next day. There’s some strategy to it.”

The Dutch team’s first game is March 2 against South Korea. It will be Blyleven’s second WBC as pitching coach for his homeland.

“I think we shocked the WBC in 2009 when we defeated the Dominican Republic a couple times,” he said. “If we’re able to get through Round 1, then Round 2 is in Japan. Our objective is to at least get to the final round in San Francisco — that would be great for the Dutch Federation team. Europe is getting stronger and stronger in baseball.”

Blyleven might have owned the best curveball in baseball history, but he said he hasn’t required that his staff emphasize the pitch.

“You can’t expect everybody to throw the curveball like I did, so you just work with what that individual has,” he said. “Right now, we’re just trying to build up arm strength.”

Nor does he expect his pitchers to know that their instructor is a hall of famer who ranks fifth in baseball’s 137-year history with 3,701 strikeouts.

“I don’t play that game, never have, never will,” Blyleven said. “All I know is when I ask them to run, they run. And when I ask them to do something, they do it. They know that I’m here to help them, and that’s the relationship that I want with them. That’s why I’m here — I want them to do well.

“The WBC is going to be watched on TV; there’s going to be scouts at games. Some of these young kids who are 17, 19 years old, scouts are going to see them. Maybe they don’t see them in (the Netherlands), but scouts will see them pitch in the WBC. So for some of them, it’s an opportunity.

“It’s an honor to help these kids out, and I take a lot of pride in it.”

DON’T PRINT THAT

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor got to know Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss well during the four years Taylor was the NBA’s chairman of the board of directors. Buss died Monday of cancer at age 80.

“He was really a good businessman,” Taylor said. “He was not only successful in real estate, but when he built the Lakers, it wasn’t just by luck. This guy thought things out, put in marketing programs to get his customers there, knew what his plan was and stayed with his plan.

“He had to have a superior product, and he was willing to charge what I’d call superior prices for that. And because of that, the Lakers became a very profitable business.”

Taylor, also a billionaire businessman away from basketball, said Buss “understood his fans very well. And though his fans are a little different than us, I think that we’ve worked very hard to understand our fans in a different way. We’ve tried to copy some of those things.”

Los Angeles, of course, is a different market from the Twin Cities.

“So he could do some things that I could not do,” Taylor said.

Player salaries, for instance.

“That’s something that only a couple of markets could do and get the best players; it’s not something we could copy,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he liked Buss.

“He was a driver,” Taylor said. “He was always at the (league) meetings and always very serious, very knowledgeable, and always willing to share positivity, and negativity if he disagreed on stuff. He was a good contributor to the organization. I liked him.”

OVERHEARD

Taylor on Buss being able to charge $2,750 per game for Lakers courtside seats: “That was something I couldn’t copy.”

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in Sports

It was clear early on that the Gophers women’s basketball team was in for a physical game against Army. Minnesota didn’t seem to mind all the hands, elbows and hips directed its way — the Gophers play in the Big Ten, after all — and earned a 70-52 victory over the Black Knights on Thursday night at Williams Arena. “I...

TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan, Kyle Lowry and the Toronto Raptors pushed aside the Minnesota Timberwolves — again. With Toronto down 95-94 with 8:46 left, DeRozan and Lowry keyed a 17-4 Raptors run that took the game away from the youthful Timberwolves. Toronto eventually pulled out a 124-110 victory, handing Minnesota its 13th straight loss at Air Canada Centre. “We just...

Members of the Missouri Tigers volleyball team are ready to have about 5,500 people rooting against them Friday night at 7:15 p.m. when they take on Minnesota’s Golden Gophers in the first round of the NCAA volleyball Minneapolis regional. “We’ve competed against a Big Ten team (Purdue, whom 27-5 Missouri defeated to advance to the regional semifinal) and that wasn’t a...

Unafraid of introducing his players to advanced statistics, Gophers coach Richard Pitino routinely tells his squad where they stand among college basketball’s top teams in stats not included in a box score. He prints out charts that combine traditional and advanced statistics, discusses them with players at practice and has an assistant track them during games to help with adjustments....

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer was optimistic punt returner Marcus Sherels will be able to play Sunday at Jacksonville, which would be a boost to a special-teams unit that struggled in several phases in last week’s loss to Dallas. Sherels has missed three of the past four games because of injury, including the previous two. Adam Thielen and Cordarrelle Patterson assumed...

When Mat Robson visited the University of Minnesota last month, he knew it was for him. Bright lights. Big city. Elite players. In Minneapolis, the 20-year-old saw a place similar to his hometown, and a chance to play goalie in front of 10,000 fans at Mariucci Arena. “The first and most important thing was going to a great program,” said...